


Follow Me Down To The River

by CantSpeakFae



Series: The Wretched: One Shots [1]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: It's happy if you pretend that you don't know how it ends, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, One-Shot, Rated for Ripper's language, Stripping, Swimming even though it's really fucking cold, stand alone fic, this is nothing but fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-06
Updated: 2018-09-06
Packaged: 2019-07-07 14:36:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15910254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CantSpeakFae/pseuds/CantSpeakFae
Summary: They all walked, together, as a merry band of misfits. It’s times like this that Randall thinks that could fall a little bit in love with all them. Fleeting moments when they’re all together and life is just...perfect.





	Follow Me Down To The River

The night is cold but the sky is clear. Out here, away from the lights of the city, it’s easy to see the expanse of stars overhead, twinkling and shimmering like the residual touch of magic clinging to their skin, and glowing like the faint gleam left in Ripper’s eyes long after they’ve forced Eyghon back out of his body.

Tonight was a complete success. No injuries sustained; a rare occurrence for the likes of them, and the thrill of having finally had complete control over the demon makes the air electric. Even Ethan was grinning as they all walked, together, as a merry band of misfits. It’s times like this that Randall thinks that could fall a little bit in love with all them. Fleeting moments when they’re all together and life is just...perfect.

“You should have seen yourself, Rip!” Philip shouted, pulling his arm back from where it was draped over Deirdre’s shoulder to run at Ripper and pounce on the leader of their little group, wrapping his arms around Ripper’s neck and his legs around his waist in an impromptu piggyback ride. “You levitated the whole fucking couch, without saying a word!”

“Oi!”

Ripper, who staggered under Philip’s weight and was forced to let go of Randall’s hand, goes a bit red in the face as Phil unintentionally choked him but managed to throw him back off and turned to scowl at him until Phil lifted his hands in a gesture of surrender and retreated back to D, halfway hiding behind her.

“God, Rip, you’re so mean to me.” He complained, loudly, keeping a safe distance away. “I bet you’d let Randall do that. I just wanna be loved, too!”

Randall bit his bottom lip to keep from sniggering. The others were not so kind, and Ripper’s scowl only grew more pronounced, though it was short-lived. It’s hard for any of them to feel anything but pure elation in the aftermath of being possessed, and Ripper had managed to break the previous record and hold onto the demon for the longest time yet: one whole hour. The intensity of the euphoria was clearly amplified by time, because Ripper let out an unwilling chuckle of his own.

“Yeah, “Rip”,” Ethan echoed, bumping his shoulder against Thomas and nearly knocking him over, just for the hell of it. “Have some compassion.”

“Fuck off with you.” Ripper countered. “You and your bloody compassion.”

“Alright. Boys, boys, boys!” Deidre said, interrupting before they could start bickering again. If Ethan had any talent besides somehow finding pubs for the band to play in that Ripper hadn’t already been banned from, it was starting arguments. “Enough. The night is still young and I don’t feel like wasting it to drag Ethan to the hospital.”

Ethan scowled, opening his mouth to argue, but Thomas just wrapped his arm around his shoulders and shook his head. No part in arguing with Deidre.

“What’d you think?” Ripper said, turning his head away from the lot of them and speaking only to Randall, now. “Eyghon. It was wicked, yeah?”

“...Yeah. It was -”

“OOH!”

Deidre’s squeal, though at a pitch previously unknown to science, was a godsend at that moment, sparring Randall from having to wrestle with his confusing feelings about seeing Ripper so powerful and seeing Ripper so… not Ripper.

“Look!”

Deidre darts past all of them, veering off to the side of the trail that leads away from the warehouse and pointing to the riverbank. Though they had passed it dozens of times, before, tonight it looked… unusually ethereal. The moonlight gave the water a hazy glow and the grass that swayed in the slight breeze looked soft. Inviting.

Glances were exchanged. A singular decision reached without a word spoken. And then -

“Last one in buys the first round next time!” Philip roared, his belt already clattering against the dirt trail. He took off, his long legs giving him an unfairly quick stride. There was a stampede of followers, clothing being casually discarded until they were stripped down into their skivvies and jumping into the lazily flowing water, screeching and gasping at the cold.

All except Randall, who slowly shuffled over to grass and sat down against it, instead, watching the lot of them splash and screech.

Ripper was the last to resurface from his elegant dive in, clearly cold but trying to prove that he’s the toughest of the lot of them, looking around to see where Randall had landed in the water, and looking taken aback when he realized that he was still on land and completely clothed.

“Oi, what’re you waiting for?” He called, bringing everyone’s attention to it.

“Aw, lookit the lad. Not shy, are you?” Phil called.

“Shouldn’t be. We’ve all walked in on Ripper stripping him down at least once.”

“Three times, actually. I’ve really got to learn to knock.”

Randall’s blush is apparent, even in the dark, but this time it’s not about Ripper’s inability to let him stay clothed.

“I’m...fine up here.” He says, as cheerfully as he can manage. “Just feel like stargazing, is all.”

“You know what, D, maybe he’s scared of you,” Phil adds, in afterthought, like Randall hadn’t spoken at all. “Probably never seen a bird that undressed, before.”

“And you have?” Deidre retorted, screeching a second later when Philip dove at her and threatened to dunk her down back under the water, splashing Ethan and Thomas in the face in the attempt and starting a whole new mass of writhing, struggling bodies, all of whom seemed intent on drowning each other.

Randall shuddered at the thought, lying back to look up at the sky.

It really was beautiful tonight. Couldn’t get a view quite like this in Soho unless he climbed up onto the roof. He’s so distracted that he doesn’t even realize that Ripper’s climbed back out of the water until someone’s cold, wet hands are at his belt.

Randall jumps, his hands immediately moving to push at Ripper’s.

“I said I don’t want to get in the water.”

“You don’t have to get in the water.” Ripper retorted, his shaggy, brown hair falling into his eyes. His hands still at Randall’s touch, but don’t move away. “But I’m fucking cold and I don’t want to get your clothes soaked.”

He seems sincere enough. Randall slowly pulls his hands back away. Lying back. Letting Ripper undress him. A strange thrill creeps up his spine and his blush makes his cheeks a darker red when he hears the loud laughter of their friends, still splashing around. Hollering and whooping like a lovely band of idiots.

Ripper peels his trousers off and then pulls him to sit up so he can pull off his shirt, stripping him down to his boxers. Satisfied with his work, Ripper rolls onto his back and pulls Randall to lie on top of him, covering him like a blanket.

“Ahhh…”

“Jesus fuck, you are cold!” Randall protested, cringing at Ripper’s clammy touch...but settling down against him, anyway, because he supposes that was the point and he doesn’t want Ripper to get hypothermia. They lie like that, with Randall’s head against Ripper’s chest and Ripper’s arms wrapped casually around him, for a long moment. Just listening to the shrieking of their friends fighting in the water and the crickets that chirp off in the distance.

“...You alright?” Ripper asked, finally, idly tracing patterns against Randall’s spine.

“Kinda cold, now, but…”

“No, I mean…”

Ripper nudges Randall until he lifts his head to look at him, eyes meeting so Ripper can gauge his expression.

“Why don’t you want to get in the water? I mean, besides it being fucking cold.”

Randall shifted, biting his bottom lip and then sighing. His voice barely rises above a whisper.

“...I can’t swim.”

Ripper stills beneath him, blinking owlishly.

“...Really?”

Randall rolled away from him, falling down into the grass and scowling at the surprise in Ripper’s voice.

“Aw, don’t be like that.”

Ripper rolls over onto his side, gazing over at Randall with a neutral expression. 

“I just didn’t know that. It’s not a problem.”

“It’s embarrassing.”

“Is not. Too fucking cold to swim, anyhow. We can just… look at the stars. Like you said you wanted to.”

“You don’t have to stay up here with me.”

Ripper tsked, moving so that he’s closer to Randall.

“Fuck off with that. I’m staying here cause I want to. Yeah?”

Randall still looked unconvinced… but he didn’t argue further. No point when Ripper gets like this. And, satisfied that Randall wasn’t going to press the issue, Ripper settled back against the grass and pulled Randall to lie close beside him.

“Good. ‘Sides… can’t bloody kiss you from all the way over there, can I?”

Randall laughs and turns his head to grin at Ripper, once again reminded that nights like these and the fleeting moments they bring are just...

_Perfect._


End file.
